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case study
Cutting the Cord by
Moving to .11ac Saves
West Chester Over $1M
West Chester University creates an all-wireless
environment using Aruba Networks Wireless
LAN, including ClearPass and AirWave, to
deliver high-performance Gigabit Wi-Fi to
student residences and saves over a million
dollars on infrastructure costs.
Benefits
• Pervasive, scalable Aruba 802.11ac Wi-Fi, with
ClientMatch, provides all-wireless residences for
over 50,000 unique devices.
• Saved $1M on wired infrastructure costs and cut
100 metric tons of carbon emissions.
• Aruba ClearPass, including QuickConnect, Policy
Manager, OnGuard, and Guest, provides a secure
wireless environment.
• AirWave centralizes network optimization and
management of residence, academic, research and
administrative Wi-Fi systems.
• Aruba Mobility Access Switches enable unified
access architecture for streamlined wireless and
wired networking.
When the majority of students started bringing Wi-Fi
routers with them to campus, the resulting
interference in West Chester University student
housing facilities became overwhelming. That’s
when Richard Chan knew it was time to cut the cord.
“For several years we supported students who wished to plug
their own routers into our wired residence hall ports,”
explains Chan, Assistant Director of Networking and
Telecommunications for the 16,000-student institution based
in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the largest university in
the 14-school State System of Higher Education
“Students have come to rely on wireless connectivity for
course-work related Internet and email access, plus
additional online courses and distance learning,” adds Chan.
“In addition, they use wireless for social media and HD video
streaming like Netflix.”
“Our enterprise, scalable, 802.11ac-enabled WLAN, with
ClearPass for security and AirWave for performance,
enables us to provide our students with a wire-free
residence life environment.”
Richard Chan
Assistant Director of Networking and Telecommunications,
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
case study
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
“However,” he continues, “when student routers became too
prevalent, we reached a tipping point. Our help desk calls
exploded because interference was preventing many
individuals from using their Wi-Fi.”
With his #GenMobile student body clamoring for a fix, Chan
began considering the advantages of the latest standard for
Wi-Fi access points (APs), IEEE 802.11ac, commonly known as
Gigabit Wi-Fi. #GenMobile is a today’s generation of techsavvy users who rely on their mobile devices for every aspect
of communication and entertainment — educational,
professional and personal.
All-wireless 802.11ac for Cost Savings and
Sustainability Benefits
“With the advent of Gigabit Wi-Fi, we proposed an all-wireless
enterprise solution that leveraged the 802.11ac standard to
deliver the coverage, capacity and performance we needed,”
Further, West Chester desired all nodes, regardless of which
IEEE standard, on the envisioned residence life WLAN to be
says Chan.
managed as a single enterprise system. Therefore, success
“Then,” he adds, “instead of upgrading existing wired LAN ports
enabled APs, but also upon deploying robust management
in existing residences, we could remove them. And, for our
eight new, state-of-the-art residences, we could pursue a
not only relied on selecting the best enterprise 802.11actools to run the extensive network effectively and securely.
wireless-only model from the start.”
“Like any teaching institution, our primary focus is educating
In all, an all-wireless plan provided a total savings of over a
needed the management tools to minimize the effort
million dollars on related wired infrastructure costs.
In addition, decreases in electrical consumption and wired
students in a secure environment,” says Chan. “So, we
required to maintain a high-performance, pervasive and
secure campus Wi-Fi network.”
switch cooling costs offered significant reductions in the
environmental impact of student residence facilities,
Positive Relationship Puts Aruba at the Head of the Class
matching the institutions larger sustainability initiatives and
Due to the university’s positive experience with Aruba
goals. “Across the eight new structures alone, we estimated
Networks 802.11n solutions, West Chester again tapped
our carbon emissions reduction at over 100 metric tons,”
Aruba to help it create the desired residence life
Chan says.
environment. This included enterprise solutions for both
hardware and management software.
PERFORMANCE + SECURITY +
PERVASIVENESS = ARUBA
To create robust and resilient network, West Chester teamed
With approximately 5,000 students living in the university-
residences with over 1000 Aruba indoor and outdoor APs.
owned and affiliated residence buildings, West Chester
elected to overhaul many of those buildings by installing
Gigabit Wi-Fi. Other affiliated residence structures have been
scheduled for installation in summer 2015.
A few of the residence halls had recently been converted to
wireless using the prior Wi-Fi standard, IEEE 802.11n, APs
from Aruba Networks during a deployment that also spanned
all academic and administrative buildings.
up with Aruba on a Pico Cell design to blanket student
West Chester also turned to a local partner, CommSolutions
of Malvern, Pennsylvania, for various implementation, project
management and verification tasks.
case study
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
ARUBA’S BUILT-IN CLIENTMATCHTM AND
APPRFTM INTELLIGENCE PROVIDES
SUPERIOR EXPERIENCES
We saved over a million dollars on
wired infrastructure costs
By using Aruba’s 802.11ac-enabled APs West Chester not only
gains wire-speed bandwidth, but also benefits from unique,
built-in Aruba intelligence features, including patented
ClientMatchTM and a next generation mobility firewall with
AppRFTM that classifies and prioritizes network traffic using
self-optimizing technology.
Seamless Hand-offs with Aruba ClientMatch
Aruba’s ClientMatch intelligently pairs wireless devices with
the best available AP. In a nutshell, ClientMatch prevents
“sticky clients” by continuously gathering performance
information from mobile devices and using it to intelligently
steer each device to the best specific AP based on signal
strength, traffic load and connection type.
With ClientMatch, overall Wi-Fi network performance and
user experiences are improved by ensuring individuals
can move seamlessly between locations served by the
Wi-Fi network.
As a key component of its Mobility-Defined Networks
architecture, Aruba’s Mobility Access Switches enable
organizations like West Chester to extend the role-based
user access, security functions and operational simplicity
available in its wireless network to its wired network as well.
Speedy Troubleshooting Boosts WLAN Reliability
and Performance
By deploying a unified access layer with Aruba,
networking issues can be resolved much faster. This
contributes to boosting wired and wireless network
performance and reliability.
For example, troubleshooting can take less time because
West Chester can determine a problem’s location from the
central unified access console and, in many cases, resolve it
from the same centralized console.
Policy-Based Aruba AppRF Self-Optimizes
“Improving performance and reliability, while achieving
Network Performance
efficiencies, are critical goals for us,” says Chan. “Unifying our
Aruba’s AppRF technology continuously evaluates mobile
access layer with Aruba’s Mobility Access Switches definitely
app usage and performance on a wireless network. Then,
AppRF automatically makes real-time network
helps us achieve those goals.”
configuration adjustments to provide optimal bandwidth,
TAKING A CLEARPASS TO SECURITY
priority and network paths based on user-centric policies.
For Wi-Fi security, West Chester selected Aruba’s scalable,
This ensures critical apps have priority and maximize
vendor-agnostic ClearPass Access Management System,
available Wi-Fi resources.
with the Guest, OnGuard, Policy Manager and
By setting a policy in the intuitive AppRF dashboard, West
QuickConnect modules.
Chester can limit bandwidth for streaming video from specific
By using ClearPass to replace a legacy AAA solution, West
apps for specific groups of users. Just as easily, all streaming
Chester gains the robust security features of a wired network
video apps can be rate limited across all users to ensure first
in a wireless environment. In a nutshell, ClearPass combines
priority is given to academic related apps.
context-based policy management with next-generation AAA
(Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) services for
UNIFYING NETWORKS WITH ARUBA MOBILITY
ACCESS SWITCHES
secure #GenMobile connectivity.
Additionally, West Chester deployed several hundred
comprehensively managing network policies, onboarding and
Aruba Mobility Access Switches to unify its wireless and
managing devices securely and admitting guest users — all
wired network.
from a single platform.
Such capabilities assist organizations like West Chester with
case study
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Given the proliferation of mobile devices and apps for
Combining ClearPass and Mobility Access Switches for
educational and other purposes, West Chester leaders
Complete Role-Based Connectivity
recognize network protection is more important than ever.
Organizations like West Chester also appreciate the power of
“ClearPass is critical for validating devices and users so that
combining Aruba’s mobility access switches with ClearPass.
we can ensure secure access,” says Chan.
This enables institutions to become completely role-based.
As a result, users have the same role no matter what device
Automating Over 50,000 Device Configurations Securely
they use – whether institution-owned or BYOD, where the
with QuickConnect and OnGuard
device connects or which type of connection is used – wired
With over 50,000 unique mobile devices on its network
or wireless.
prior to going all-wireless, West Chester anticipated that
number would mushroom as students engaged with the
new infrastructure.
To get such large volumes of devices connected and
In the case of West Chester, this means a context-aware
role-based strategy can be deployed in the all-wireless
residence halls as well as academic and administration
buildings, where both wired and wireless access is available.
configured efficiently, West Chester adopted the ClearPass
can provide students the ability to configure their own
GRANULAR, CRITICAL INSIGHTS WITH
ARUBA AIRWAVE
devices for secure access without involving IT, dramatically
For ensuring the overall health of its WLAN, West Chester
freeing up IT resources over manual configuration with legacy
deployed another scalable, vendor-agnostic Aruba solution:
AAA solutions.
AirWave Network Management.
Additionally, West Chester is deploying ClearPass OnGuard
AirWave provides West Chester with critical and granular
for advance security posture assessments. OnGuard enables
visibility into their entire Wi-Fi network and underlying wired
organizations to automatically check every computing device
infrastructure. This includes real-time and historical
that connects, regardless of ownership or type, to ensure it
information on types of devices logging on, the specific
meets security compliance requirements. Devices failing to
access points devices are connected to and the total number
comply can be redirected for remediation.
of devices on the network.
Policy-based Management Improves Academic
Enabling Operational Improvements Via Total Visibility
Application Performance
and Control, Regardless of Device Type
In addition to basing policies on user roles, ClearPass
With AirWave, West Chester enjoys a map-like interface,
provides organizations with the ability to utilize contextual
which provides a visual representation of each AP, and its
attributes for controlling network traffic priority. This ensures
location, at every facility. This visualization includes the
wireless activities related to teaching and learning aren’t
number of users connected to a specific AP and whether
competing with off-hours endeavors.
they’re using an institution-owned or BYOD device. Such
At West Chester, this means students are permitted to
capabilities assist with diagnosing issues as well as planning
QuickConnect module. With QuickConnect, West Chester
connect a range of Wi-Fi devices without intruding upon
for where APs are needed – or whether other steps should
academic applications. These same devices are not
be taken – to maximize performance.
permitted on the academic network based on their
In addition, AirWave’s VisualRF™ feature not only provides
device profile.
current and historical device information, but also reports on
“We created a guest network for non-academic devices,” says
applications and their performance. With such visibility,
Chan. “We use ClearPass to register and onboard those
devices. And, by limiting the bandwidth available to the guest
network, academics and research receive priority.”
problems that previously took hours to resolve can be done
in minutes. This provides substantial savings through
operational efficiency, reduced downtime and consolidated
management toolsets.
case study
West Chester University of Pennsylvania
Pinpointing Interference Sources Speeds Resolution
“The new residence life wireless network is enabling more
AirWave also provides an unprecedented view into sources of
online education,” he continues. “This permits students to
signal interference. Like any institution, West Chester has a
pursue a blended approach — they can take some traditional
range of devices on campus that can cause interference,
classroom courses and some online courses.”
including Bluetooth gear, microwave ovens, and more. With
AirWave, IT staff can visually see the sources of interference,
Expanding to an All-Wireless Institution
enabling mobile devices to be moved automatically to a
What’s more, the success of the residence life deployment is
cleaner channel.
also helping West Chester test drive wire-free environments
“AirWave definitely assists our help desk with troubleshooting
interference and other reported issues,” affirms Chan.
prior to pursuing a similar strategy institution-wide.
“The residence life project is giving us the confidence to
review the potential of an all-wireless enterprise,” Chan says.
Combining AirWave with AppRF Enables End-to-End
UC View
About ARUBA Networks, inc.
To assist institutions like West Chester with future transitions
Aruba Networks (NASDAQ:ARUN) is a leading provider of
to unified communications, combining AirWave and Aruba’s
next-generation network access solutions for the mobile
built-in AppRF provides a consolidated dashboard for viewing
enterprise. The company designs and delivers Mobility-
network health and app performance.
Defined Networks that empower IT departments and
Only Aruba provides an end-to-end view of UC, making it
easier to quickly identify issues and isolate problems to help
ensure UC sessions achieve optimal performance.
#GenMobile, a new generation of tech-savvy users who rely
on their mobile devices for every aspect of work and
personal communication.
To create a mobility experience that #GenMobile and IT can
ARUBA GIGABIT WI-FI PROVIDES SIGNFICANT
PERFORMANCE GAINS
rely upon, Aruba Mobility-Defined Networks™ automate
To ensure a smooth rollout of its new 802.11ac wireless
security actions that used to require manual IT intervention.
network, West Chester initially conducted a pilot with about
The results are dramatically improved productivity and lower
100 students in a three-story building, which revealed gains
operational costs.
for all mobile devices, both new and old.
Based in Sunnyvale, California, Aruba has operations
The enhanced design of the 802.11ac APs ensures that
throughout the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and
throughput is maximized for each device, regardless of type.
Asia Pacific regions.
“We’ve seen significantly improved performance even for
To learn more, visit http://www.arubanetworks.com or get
802.11n-enabled devices,” says Chan.
real-time updates on Twitter and Facebook. For the latest
infrastructure-wide performance optimization and trigger
technical discussions on mobility and related solutions, visit
Aruba WLAN Assists with Enrollment Growth Goals
Airheads Social at http://community.arubanetworks.com.
Beyond student residence life needs, West Chester’s new
Gigabit WLAN is assisting with other critical institutional
goals. “We’ve undertaken an enrollment growth initiative,”
explains Chan.
1344 Crossman Ave | Sunnyvale, CA 94089
1.866.55.ARUBA | T: 1.408.227.4500 | FAX: 1.408.227.4550 | info@arubanetworks.com
www.arubanetworks.com
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